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Subtle nonlinearity in popular album charts

Author

Listed:
  • R. Alexander Bentley

    (Department of Anthropology, 1180 Observatory Drive, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA)

  • Herbert D. G. Maschner

    (Department of Anthropolo, Box 8005, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 83209, USA)

Abstract

Large-scale patterns of culture change may be explained by models of self organized criticality, or alternatively, by multiplicative processes. We speculate that popular album activity may be similar to critical models of extinction in that interconnected agents compete to survive within a limited space. Here we investigate whether popular music albums as listed on popular album charts display evidence of self-organized criticality, including a self-affine time series of activity and power-law distributions of lifetimes and exit activity in the chart. We find it difficult to distinguish between multiplicative growth and critical model hypotheses for these data. However, aspects of criticality may be masked by the selective sampling that a "Top 200" listing necessarily implies.

Suggested Citation

  • R. Alexander Bentley & Herbert D. G. Maschner, 1999. "Subtle nonlinearity in popular album charts," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 2(03), pages 197-208.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:acsxxx:v:02:y:1999:i:03:n:s0219525999000114
    DOI: 10.1142/S0219525999000114
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